


unmixed signals

by breeeliss



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: College AU, Friends to Lovers, Humor, M/M, Pining, Pining!Lance, Romance, Slice of Life, keith and lance being stupid, that always deserves its own warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 09:47:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14566368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breeeliss/pseuds/breeeliss
Summary: Lance honked his horn. “Keith, get your bitch ass in my car before I run you over.”“Sorry my dad taught me not to enter strangers’ cars.”“You’re gonna get sick standing out here just get in.”Keith cupped his hands around his mouth. “HELP!” he yelled. “I don’t know this man! He’s trying to kidnap me!”--In which a rainy Sunday morning brings with it some wet groceries, a valiant rescue, and some much needed romantic clarity.





	unmixed signals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [keith-tron](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=keith-tron).



> a very very very late gift for [keith-tron](https://keith-tron.tumblr.com/) for the [vldshipexchange](https://vldshipexchange.tumblr.com/). some cute, college klance does wonders for the soul, so i hope you enjoy~

Lance should’ve known better than to postpone his grocery shopping. 

Sure, it was seventy degrees and sunny yesterday and he had plans to spend the entire day lounging on the lawns and doing absolutely nothing, but he really could’ve gotten his ass up early and driven down to Whole Foods if he cared enough to try. 

Now he was here on a Sunday morning squinting past his windshield wipers, silencing the flash flood warning blaring from his cellphone, and praying to God that he didn’t crash his car into a tree trying to figure out how the hell to get home in all this rain. 

He really needed to remember to check the weather before he left the house. He’d been without an umbrella and wearing flip flops once the sky opened up and he was pretty sure he dropped all of his bread and bagels in a huge puddle when he was loading up his car. Not to mention he was drenched all the way down to his freaking  _ underwear _ and he was pretty sure all the bills in his wallet were so wet they were close to disintegrating. 

...shit. And he may have forgotten to buy eggs. Goddammit. 

Lance was only able to bear the Sunday morning traffic for ten more minutes before he was totally over it. He had a bed and a stress nap to get back home to, so he cut the wheel and veered off the avenue so he could take the local streets all the way back home. It would probably add another fifteen minutes to his drive, but the longer he could put off dragging his soaking wet groceries up that four floor walk up, the better. 

He was waiting at a light and trying to blot his hair with Chipotle napkins when he noticed some poor guy standing at the bus stop on the corner without an umbrella. He didn’t even have a hood up or anything — just a thin sports jacket and a physics textbook that was doing a pitiful job of trying to shield him from the rain. 

“The hell is he doing?” Lance muttered. This was the bus that stopped right in front of his apartment and that thing showed up every half hour on a good day. He was better off getting an Uber. Who even waited for buses in weather like this? What an idiot….

The light turned greed and Lance was about to turn the corner before he saw the guy sneeze and wipe his wet bangs out of his eyes to scratch at his nose. Lance’s eyes went wide as he pulled up to the curb, rolled down his window, and honked the horn until he got the guy’s attention. 

“Keith!” Lance shouted. “You fucking moron! What the hell are you doing waiting for the bus in the rain?” 

Keith jumped a little at Lance’s shrill voice, but once he saw who was in the car he rolled his eyes. “Must you yell?” 

“In order to chastise you for your fucking stupidity? Yeah, buddy, I must. Why aren’t you calling a car this bus is a freaking myth on Sundays.” 

Keith tapped his pocket. “My phone died. I forgot to bring a charger to work. I have no choice.” 

“I’m going to start stapling your charger to your forehead. This was the same thing that happened when we went to that concert and you couldn’t pull up our tickets because your phone died.” 

“I have an old phone! It doesn’t hold a charge!” 

“You can get a new one, I checked your upgrade plan with you in front of me last week, you’re just difficult!” 

Keith groaned and waved Lance down the block while he went to stand underneath an oak tree on the corner that provided some better coverage. “Why are you up so early on a Sunday? You usually don’t answer my texts on Sundays until like two in the afternoon.” 

Lance collapsed against the steering wheel. “Shopping. I haven’t done it in two weeks. I ate plain tortilla bread for dinner last night, so we were looking a little desperate. But I got caught in the rain.” 

Keith snorted. “Well, that explains why your shorts are all wet.”

“Oh like you should be talking, you look like you were happy to stand at that stop for another hour.” 

“Again. I can’t call a car.”

“Well, God called a car for you today, Keithy my boy, because I’m here to rescue you.” Lance reached over the console and opened the passenger side door. “Hop in. I’ll drive you home.” 

Keith wrinkled his nose. “Absolutely not. The last time you picked me up from somewhere, you kidnapped me for two days.” 

“What!? No I didn’t!”

“You picked me up from my biochem final for victory ice cream which turned into you trying to take us to the theme park upstate. Except your car broke down and we had to stay in a shitty motel while State Farm towed it away.”

“That wasn’t kidnapping, that was just a poorly planned weekend. Besides, this is different. I’m just gonna take you home, it’s on my way. Don’t worry about it.” 

Keith winced and started walking back to the bus stop. “Eh.” 

Lance scoffed and started to slowly back up his car. “I’m not going anywhere until you get in my car.” 

“Then you’re going to be stranded there for a while.” 

“You can call dibs on the aux cable! And I have heat! And blankets! Well, bath towels that I got from the Target next door, but same shit.” 

“I’m waiting for the bus.”

Lance honked his horn. “Keith, get your bitch ass in my car before I run you over.” 

“Sorry my dad taught me not to enter strangers’ cars.” 

“You’re gonna get sick standing out here just get in.” 

Keith cupped his hands around his mouth. “HELP!” he yelled. “I don’t know this man! He’s trying to kidnap me!” 

Lance put the car in park and unbuckled his seat belt. “You’re gonna make me do this, huh?” 

“Do wha — ? Dude! What the  _ fuck!? _ ” 

Lance climbed over the console, leaped from the passenger’s side, and booked it in Keith’s direction who decided to make life difficult and  _ run away from Lance _ instead of letting him be helpful. It turned into this ridiculous game of tag around trees, over trash cans, and into the front yards of some of the houses nearby until Lance managed to tackle Keith onto the grass and shove mud into his hair until he finally agreed to get into his car. 

Lance happily handed Keith one of his purchased bath towels as he turned on the heat, plugged Keith’s phone in to charge, and put on Keith’s favorite Pentatonix album. “See how I take care of my friends?” 

Keith squeezed the mud out of his hair and pointed the vents at his face. “You shoved my face into the dirt and called me a little bitch.” 

“So that I could save you from the rain,” Lance smiled. “Besides, you hit me with a trash bag and called me a basic hoe.” 

“And I’m proud of that.” Keith jutted his chin at the radio. “Skip to ‘Sing’ and turn the volume up.” 

“Aw  _ fuck yeah _ , Keith’s in the  _ car! _ ” Lance pumped up the volume until the base was making the car shake, and Keith choked with laughter as Lance shrieked along horribly to the lyrics. 

Keith and Lance’s friendship was a really weird one, and everyone else looking in tended to agree. It started out because they were in the same orgo class and Lance, after studying for their first exam for fifty years, only managed to get the  _ second _ highest score in the class. Keith beat him out by two extra credit points and at that point it was on. 

Of course Keith didn’t know it was on until exam three when Lance shoved his perfect score in his face and declared that the evil was defeated. So Keith studied his ass off for exam four and crushed Lance by five whole points. Lance had complained about  _ that _ one for close to a week. And so it kept going for the entire semester and the one after that since they had the same major and shared close to three classes with each other. 

Lance wasn’t usually someone who cared about his grades — he was a STEM major, as long as he passed he didn’t really give a fuck. But Keith was that hot kid in his class who never participated and barely took notes and still managed to muscle to the top of his class. It  _ bothered _ him, okay? And Lance took great pleasure in watching Keith’s face get all scrunched up when he leaned over Lance’s shoulder in class and saw a higher grade in the corner of Lance’s paper. You know. It was satisfying. For some reason. Like he really liked the fact that he bothered Keith so much when the dude was normally unfazed by shit like standing out in the middle of a thunderstorm. 

But one day they both got slotted into the same gen ed class — honestly what kind of university requires STEM students to take a music theory course? — and bonded when Keith realized Lance had been sitting in the back of the classroom watching Parks & Rec for the past two weeks and asked to join him. 

Parks & Rec marathons during class turned into studying for music theory quizzes which turned into getting coffee, going to the dining hall together three days a week, attending GSA meetings together, and Lance inviting Keith out on the weekends. 

Keith was a cool dude. Annoying, stubborn, and running around with an outdated hairstyle, but still cool. He dressed nice, his music taste was awesome, and, yeah fine, Lance still thought he was really attractive. It’s not like he’d let just anyone drip mud into his car. No, that was reserved for a special kind of attractive idiot. 

Not that Keith realized that, but that was a  _ whoooole _ other thing. 

Once Keith had admitted to Lance that he never had breakfast this morning, Lance pulled them into the parking lot of the closest IHOP and ordered them each a stack of pancakes to go that they decided to eat in the car. At one point, Keith leaned over to stare at the back seat and spoke through a full mouth, “How are you gonna manage carrying this all up to your apartment? There are like twenty bags back here.” 

“Don’t remind me,” Lance grumbled. “I didn’t really think that through and I’m trying to avoid it.” 

“Did you need to get this much?” 

“My  _ compras _ are usually not this crazy, but I’ve been stacked with midterms so I was seriously running low on like everything. It’s whatever I’ll just...make a bunch of trips.” 

Keith hummed around his fork. “I mean...do you need help?”

Lance raised a brow. “With carrying up all my groceries? Thought you said you needed to get home.” 

Keith shrugged and nodded. “You live like ten minutes away from me. Worst case scenario, I’ll wait out the rain at your place, and walk home when it’s passed.” 

“Huh. You know, I think this is the first time you’ve been over to my place.”

Keith blinked slowly at that information and looked down at his breakfast in his lap. “I mean, there was that one time. When you said we could study at your apartment instead of the library. But I got sick and you never offered again.” 

“Not gonna lie, I sorta thought the sick thing was an excuse.” 

Keith frowned. “Why would it be an excuse? I was really sick. You brought me medicine and everything.” 

Lance scratched the back of his neck. “Don’t ask, I don’t know, I just thought like...that was the first time I invited you over and of  _ course _ you were sick. But then you actually  _ were _ sick so it was just me being stupid.” 

“What, did you think I didn’t actually want to go over to your place? Why wouldn’t I want to go?” 

Lance shoved more food into his mouth. “I don’t know, okay? Just forget it.” 

“No, I wanna know! I’ve seen you drunk and half naked, what makes you think I wouldn’t want to come over to your house?” 

“I don’t  _ knoooow _ .” He covered his face with his hands and let his words come out muffled. “Stop asking, I like don’t know what goes on in my head half the time, just never mind.” 

He wasn’t expecting Keith to laugh at that — and not one of those barking, condescending laughs he did when Lance did something stupid, but a warm fond one that Lance saw had this really adorable smile that came with it. Soft at the edges, like he thought Lance was being endearing for once. Keith lowered his knees from the dashboard and bagged the last of Lance’s garbage. “I’m inviting myself over, so chill. Besides, you don’t go to the gym enough to justify being able to carry all those bags.” 

“I can bench press like 120!” 

Keith pouted. “That’s really adorable. Seriously. The cutest thing you’ve ever said to me.” 

“I will eat your fucking face, Keith, don’t start with me.” 

As much as the view of his apartment rocked, the walk up was definitely a nightmare. The amount of maneuvering it took to get his couch all those flights of stairs defied all concepts of reality, and getting home wasted at 3am was just about the closest thing to Hell on Earth that Lance could think of. One time he couldn’t even make it and decided to just nap in the hallway until morning. Not his proudest moment. 

But Keith treated it like it was nothing — jogging up the stairs with five bags slung over his arms and talking shit to Lance who was still huffing and puffing two flights down and struggling with his own load of groceries. Of course Keith was one of those weirdos who woke up at six in the morning to run four miles before waltzing into his first class and still managing to stay on top of his classes. It used to be annoying and make Lance actually contemplate getting a gym membership just to show him up in one more thing. But now it was just endearing to see Keith so enthusiastically go out of his way to help Lance with something silly like groceries. There was a compulsion to read into it, but Lance knew better than to start injecting hope into fissures that were too small to hold anything substantial. 

They were unloading everything into the cupboards and the fridge when Keith asked, “So where’s your roommate?” 

“Hunk’s spending the weekend at his girlfriend’s place so he probably won’t come back until Monday morning,” Lance explained. “Which is a damn shame because that means I’ll have to order out for lunch and dinner.” 

“Chinese food again?” Keith teased. 

“Actually, I was gonna get  _ Thai _ food today for your information.” Lance put away the rest of the cereal before clearing his throat. “You, uh….you want me to buy you something? My treat.” 

“You don’t have to. I can just buy something later on.”

“Nah, consider it thanks for helping bring my groceries up.” 

“ _ That _ was thanks for saving me from the rain.” 

“And to think you made me wrestle you into the car!” 

“Wouldn’t be a full day if I didn’t give you shit at least once, right?” 

“Valid, but you messed up my new shirt in the process so I’m not condoning it.” 

Keith leaned his hip into the counter. “Let me Venmo you the cash for lunch.”

Lance slammed the fridge shut. “Nope! I said my treat. Can’t do anything about it. If you Venmo me I’ll Venmo you back. So deal with it.” 

He smirked as Lance stripepd off his dirty overshirt and jeans and chucked them by the door, leaving him in just a tank top and boxers. “So I guess that means I’m staying then?” 

Lance laid across the couch and blindly reached for the remote to his Roku while he kept his eyes on Keith who was rounding the counter to sit on the arm of the couch where Lance’s feet were splayed. “Rain doesn’t stop until like later this afternoon, so you might as well. Besides leaves us time to study for that physics quiz on Tuesday.” 

Keith looked down at his feet and chuckled. “Yeah. Studying.” He lifted the hem of his own shirt. “May I? It’s caked in mud.” 

Lance swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, go ahead. There’s no one here.” 

To his credit, Lance only stared for a couple of seconds — long enough to see the way Keith’s abdominal muscles flexed and pulsed when he rolled his shoulders back — before he turned back to cycling through Netflix shows and trying to seem like this was all just normal. 

Keith plucked pieces of caked mud out of his hair and made a face. “Uh, actually can I shower real quick?” 

“...like in  _ my _ shower?” 

Keith gave him an amused smirk. “Unless you have a guest shower I can use.” 

Lance glared. “Shut up. Yeah you can use it. Just grab one of the new towels. And the hot water disappears after like ten minutes so you’d have to make it quick. Soap’s under the sink and you can use my shampoo.” 

“Oh fun. You mean the shampoo that’s in a separate bottle from the conditioner?” 

“ _ Yes _ , Keith, I don’t allow that 2-in-1 nonsense in this household.” 

Keith did that soft little laugh again and tapped Lance’s ankle before disappearing around the corner and shutting the bathroom door behind him. Once Lance heard the water turn on, he let out a huge breath and covered his face with one of his pillows. 

Reading into stuff like that was just too pathetic. Hunk did affectionate stuff like that all the time and it certainly didn’t mean that he was into him. But Lance knew Keith. Not as well as some of his other friends, but well enough to know that Keith saved affection for people who really deserved it. Like that grad student friend of his, Shiro, who was built like a Greek God and who Lance was pretty sure Keith might have maybe been possibly crushing on because who  _ wouldn’t _ crush on that? 

But then Keith did things like wipe food off of Lance’s cheek while they were having lunch, grab his elbow to pull him through a crowd of freshman in the Biology building, and laugh into his shoulder while they crammed into an Uber Pool at four in the morning after getting trashed at the bars downtown. Keith always made it seem like it was no big deal — like it was just something he did, something that felt natural in the moment, something that any other friend would do. And maybe it was. Maybe Lance was reading into stuff because Keith wasn’t straight and he happened to be a really sweet guy who wasn’t as turned off by Lance’s dramatics as he liked to pretend he was.

He was probably projecting too much. Hunk kept telling him that was a problem of his. Wanting things to work out so he’d invent things in his head that weren’t really there. Except Hunk wasn’t here to separate what was real and what wasn’t, and Keith was currently naked in Lance’s shower and planning on staying for lunch. 

It was confusing. Which unfortunately meant that Lance probably needed to unconfuse it. And he  _ hated _ getting confirmations for things that were probably all in his head to begin with. 

Lance was in the middle of an episode from a baking show he was watching when Keith came out in his boxers and running a towel through his hair. 

“I had to dry them with your hair dryer,” Keith said, pointing to his underwear. 

“Is that what took you so long? I could’ve just thrown them in the dryer for you.” 

“I wasn’t about to freeball it in your apartment. Besides, they’re only like a little bit damp.” 

Lance rolled his eyes. “You’re disgusting. Honestly.” 

Keith narrowed his eyes and sat on top of Lance’s legs, making him shriek and smack Keith on his bare back. “Gross!! You idiot, your ass is all wet.” 

“I know, isn’t it annoying?” 

Lance tried to unlodge his leg and kick Keith in the side of his face, but Keith was too heavy and Keith’s spite was truly a thing to behold if you managed to rub him the wrong way enough. And that turned out to be one of Lance’s hidden talents. He collapsed against the pillows and turned back to his show. “Fine. Be stupid.” 

“So is this all you’re planning on doing today? Watching The Great British Baking Show and ordering in food despite all the groceries you just bought?” 

“It’s my lazy day Keith. Leave me alone.” 

“Hard to do that if I’m hanging out at your place for the next six hours.” 

“Yeah, well you were the one who invited yourself over and literally planted your ass on top of me so I guess I don’t have a choice now do I?” 

Keith chewed on the inside of his cheek and kept his gaze on the television. “I mean, if this is your chill day I can go. I don’t wanna throw of your routine or anything.” 

Lance picked up on the quiet tone and he immediately sat up to grab Keith’s arm. “Wait, no no, sorry. I was just kidding. I thought that was one of our sarcastic things. You can totally stay here, dude, it’d be nice to have someone else in the apartment. Gets lonely when Hunk isn’t here.” 

“Is that why you tried to invite me over the last time?” 

It sounded like Keith meant it as a joke, but Lance decided not to treat it like one. “Nah. I hadn’t seen you much that week so I thought it would be a way to make up for all the lost time.” 

Keith stared at him for a long moment. “Wait, really?” 

“It felt weird not seeing you that whole week, so I thought that….yeeeaaah. You know. Shut up! Stop laughing it’s not funny!” 

Lance jostled him until Keith’s shoulders stopped shaking. “Sorry, sorry,” he apologized. “That’s just really cute.” 

“Cute?” Lance scoffed. “Are you feeling okay? Usually you call me stupid, annoying, loud, or ridiculous. Not cute.” 

Keith shrugged. “I have called you cute before. Just not to your face.” 

Lance sat up immediately. “Wait, what?” 

“Nothing, nothing,” Keith backtracked. “It was nothing. Forget it.” 

“Like hell,” Lance exclaimed, probably a little too loudly because he’d suddenly gotten  _ incredibly  _ excited. “When did you not tell me I was cute?” 

“I’m not telling you anything, I didn’t say anything, watch your freaking baking show.” 

“Baking in tents on lawns isn’t as entertaining as this.” He paused the television without looking and poked Keith in the ribs. “I wanna hear what you have to say. When was I cute?” 

“Nope.” 

“Keith,  you piece of shit, come on!”

“You’re acting too self satisfied about this.” 

“I would very much like to know what you think of me since I clearly have been kept in the dark.” 

“Fine, you wanna know when?” Keith countered. “Right now. Smiling like an idiot and letting your face get all red because you’re so eager to find out why I find you cute.” 

Lance bit his lip. “You think this is cute?” 

“Yeah,” Keith said. “Happy?” 

“Getting there. Tell me more.” 

“Not incentivized to do so.” 

“I saved you from the rain today.” 

“I carried your groceries.” 

“I offered to buy you lunch.”

“You haven’t technically bought it yet.” 

“But I’m  _ going _ to.”

“I need something else in exchange otherwise you get nothing.” 

Lance smiled. “I mean, I think it’s cute that you’re trying to play it off like you didn’t just admit  _ I _ was cute.” 

“That doesn’t count,” Keith frowned. 

“It totally does. Your turn.” 

Keith shook his head. “We’re not playing this game. We’ll be here all day.” 

Lance laughed. “Is there that much material to get through?” 

Keith turned to him, let his eyes linger down to his lips and back up before he sighed. “You have no idea…” 

Lance felt his chest grow warm and was suddenly hyper aware of Keith’s hand on his thigh. He decided to be a little brave and let just the tips of his fingers knock against the side of Keith’s knee. “If I was picking up the wrong signals you would tell me right?” 

“I’d jump at the opportunity to embarrass you Lance, so yeah.” 

Lance nodded and waited for a few beats. “So...you’re not saying anything.” 

“Nope.” 

Lance grinned and wiped a hand down his face. “Cool,” he said. “Cool cool cool. Cool, cool. Totally cool.” 

Keith rested his hand by Lance’s hip and leaned in just enough to get Lance reclining back against the couch. “You okay?” 

“A little lightheaded,” he admitted. “But in a good way. A relieved sort of way, really.” 

“Relieved?”

Lance gestured in between them. “I thought I was just being a little too gay and hopeful about this for a while there, so I guess it’s nice to know that I’m not totally oblivious.” 

“Should I have made it more clear?” 

“I mean it would’ve been nice, but not necessary. It’s clear enough now which is good.” 

Keith smirked and leaned in closer, adjusting his legs so that he was straddling Lance’s hips and facing him at a better angle. “I could clear it up for you a little more if you want.” 

“God, you better not be fucking with me.” 

“Not that I don’t thrive on making jokes at your expense, but I don’t joke about this stuff.” 

“I may need a lot of help clearing this up. I’m a confused guy.”

“So no studying?”

“Oh no fucking way, we were never going to study.” 

“Damn, you  _ were _ being hopeful.”

“Hopeful for clarity. Not necessarily making out. Although if clarity and making out happened to intersect, then it would’ve just been a win-win.” 

“Who said anything about making out?” 

“You’re  _ staring _ at me, dude. And your chest is touching my chest. It’s not like we’re gonna have a tickle fight.” 

“Hot. You into that?” 

“Would you shut up already?” 

Keith shrugged. “Since you asked so nicely…” 

He finished closing the distance, and Lance was suddenly reminded of how much he loved the excitement and novelty of kissing someone for the first time. It felt foreign for only a couple of seconds because it had been so long since he’d done this. But then everything from Keith’s wet hair to Keith’s arms to Keith’s quiet groans to Keith’s teeth gently biting into his lip all melted together and made Lance dread the moment when he’d have to stop kissing this boy and let him go back to his apartment. 

He’d have to fix that. Invite Keith over more often. Find more excuses for study dates. Kick Hunk out a couple of times (Hunk would understand). Get him to stay over one night if he was lucky. So many ideas. Ideas that he didn’t have to push away for being too idealistic. Ideas that Keith may actually readily agree to if the way his hips circling against his was any indication of his enthusiasm. 

Lance broke the kiss and laughed breathlessly when Keith started licking lines along the side of his neck. “So, uh….dinner?” 

“Only if there’s a show to go with it.” 

Lance shivered when Keith bit into his skin. “God, you suck so fucking much, you’re not allowed to have these good one liners. That’s my job, you loser.” 

“This sounds like it’s going to be orgo class all over again.” 

“You love it.” 

“Unfortunately. Good thing you’re better than orgo homework.” 

“How romantic,” Lance droned. “Do tell me more.” 

“Oh I’ll  _ show _ you more.” 

Lance hummed and pulled Keith in for another kiss. “Take all the time you need. That rain’s not stopping anytime soon.” 


End file.
